Wairoa: Fire chief recounts the day the flood hit town - and his home

The Wairoa Volunteer Fire Brigade is bouncing back after the calamity which saw the homes of five members inundated in the June 26 flood, just as the brigade was about to go on a recruiting drive.

New Wairoa fire chief Luke Knight, whose own home was among five volunteer firefighters whose homes were flooded on June 26. Photo / Paul Taylor

And the elements weren’t choosy about who they left out, even chief fire officer and Wairoa District Council property and solid waste manager Luke Knight having his McLean St home evacuated as he and others were out rescuing in the morning, just hours before the brigade was to stage a recruitment night at the station in Lucknow St.

“We’d never had an issue here before last week,” he said on Thursday outside the home where he lives with wife Charlotte, a Gisborne council strategic planning manager who, on Thursday, was back at her job for the first time since the flood.

In the meantime they’ve been staying with friends, not knowing when they’d be able to return to the house, through which water flowed up to 200mm deep from Wairoa River backed up from the river mouth. It was more than half a metre deep in the garage.

A welfare check in McLean St, Wairoa, with out-of-town Māori wardens and Te Piringa Mana Topu Regional Recovery Unit members Marcell and Rata. Photo / Paul Taylor

The CFO said he’d headed to the fire station about 4.30am, with little inkling of what might happen at home, but after two hours of his crews wading in and out of other homes to effect the rescues his wife was being told she’d have to leave home as well.

“We knew there was heavy raining coming,” he said, but judged by previous experiences his own home should have remained untroubled.

“We went down Kopu Rd and the flooding was over the road, about number 84, where we thought it would stop,” he said. “But it just kept on coming.”

Among the firefighting volunteers was his neighour.

As the day progressed Fire and Emergency crews from other centres were joining the rescues and recovery, Knight saying last week he was amazed by the extent of resources that helped Wairoa, again, in its hours of need.

As well as the recognised emergency and councils services, there was a big effort from contractors lead by council-owned Quality Roading and Services (QRS) and Fulton Hogan, along with Man 4 the Job, B&K Earthmoving, Powdrell Services, Frontline Civil, My Backyard, and Pro Arbore.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 51 years of journalism experience, 40 of them in Hawke’s Bay, in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities - among them events in Wairoa.